Popular Powerbook Has A Few Drawbacks

BUSINESS COMPUTING

March 15, 1993|By JOHN MARKOFF, The New York Times

The scene would alarm the owner of any portable computer. The technician at the local computer store looked at the tiny new Express modem from Apple Computer Inc. that he was preparing to install in a Mac PowerBook Duo and said: ``I`ve never done one of these before. The tech over at the Berkeley store said his first one took him 3 1/2 hours.``

Apple`s new high-speed modem-on-a-chip is several months late to market, and it is expensive and difficult to install. It also serves as an effective illustration of the refinements needed in the PowerBook, which has become not just the nation`s most popular laptop computer but also the best-selling computer of all time.

In its first year on America`s lap, the PowerBook family has generated more than $1 billion in revenue for Apple and found a receptive market with users from yuppies who love the ``knowledge`` they can access to help them with lifestyle decisions to buyers of corporate management information systems who want to automate sales-force operations.

But impressive as they are, the PowerBooks, which range in weight from 4 to 7 pounds and in price from $2,000 to $5,000, are far from perfect. And precisely because they`ve become so popular -- unlike desktop computers they become traveling and bedside companions -- the flaws are less likely to be forgiven.

So just about everyone who owns a PowerBook has a list of improvements he or she would be pleased to see incorporated in future models.

``I think the PowerBooks are the best laptops made today,`` said Cary Lu, a columnist for MacWorld magazine whose monthly column offers tips for PowerBook users. ``But there are several obvious anachronisms.``

It is not unusual these days, she says, for portable computer users to cluster in the seats at the back of the plane -- that way they are closest to the power outlets in the toilet stalls.

To attempt to extend the period between battery charges, Apple has built in a range of software features that automatically dim the screen, slow the processing and shut down the hard disk when the computer is not in use. But such steps often irritate users who find they must adapt to performance compromises.

``When I`m in a situation where my hard disk keeps going to sleep, I`m better off sleeping myself,`` said Steven Levy, author of the monthly Iconoclast column in MacWorld. Apple acknowledges that batteries are a weak spot in the PowerBook`s design.

Apple engineers are doing a variety of things to try to extend the PowerBook`s batteries. One direction is to try to take weight out of the existing PowerBook so a larger, heavier battery can be crammed inside. Another approach is a new generation of more intelligent batteries that can modify their behavior to adapt to the computer user`s use pattern.

Still Apple has a significant handicap compared with all the laptop computers from the PC world, which are powered by a low-power 3.3-volt chip made by the Intel Corp.

Motorola Inc. makes the processor for the Macintosh family, and low-power versions of its 68000 family have been slow to emerge. The Motorola chip requires 5 volts.

A second area of dissatisfaction is in the area of ergonomics -- something for which the PowerBook family generally gets high marks. Although Apple has designed the keyboard to offer palm rests and has developed a trackball that permits the user to control the system without lifting hands from the keys, most users find something that makes them unhappy. The small size of the trackball is the most common complaint.

Another is that Apple did not provide page up and page down keys on the keyboard. These are handy in many popular software programs and have pretty much become an industry standard on other machines. Not having them requires users to take more complicated steps to achieve the same result.

Some PowerBook owners say Apple did not do a good job setting the tension on the space bar, with the result that they often find themselves skipping spaces between words.

Finally, a feature that may haunt Apple in the future is its decision to design PowerBook screens at 640 by 400 pixels, in contrast to the industry standard of 640 by 480. The odd screen size, an unfortunate remnant of the original, unsuccessful Macintosh Portable design, can cause compatibility problems in calling images and programs on screen.

Some PowerBook owners also complain that the computer`s connector for a power adaptor that connects to an electrical outlet is prone to cracking. In some cases, they say, a crack in the plug leads to an electrical short on the computer`s mother board. That is costly to repair.

To Apple`s credit, it takes all these complaints seriously and whittles away at the list of problems with each new model. On average, Apple is introducing a new Powerbook model each quarter.